The persistence literature in economics and related disciplines connects recent outcomes to events long ago. This influential literature marks a promising development but has drawn criticism. We discuss two prominent examples that ground the rise of the Nazi Party in distant historical roots....

The paper reviews recent literature on the economics of migration and diasporas, focusing on economic gains and opportunities that these diasporas could represent for home countries. In addition, the paper discusses policies aimed at leveraging this "diaspora capital"

This paper explores the impact of credit market on the entrepreneurs and demand for credit in a credit constrained economy and the resultant impact on the capital flows. In standard trade models the capital flows across countries are explained as a result of the rate of return differentials due...

When other measures for material welfare are scarce or unreliable, the use of average stature and body mass index (BMI) values is common. BMI reflects the current difference between calories consumed, calories required for work, and to withstand the physical environment. This study evaluates...

This paper analyzes the optimal tax system consisting of the tax rate and the capacity of the tax administration. I challenge the conventional wisdom that tax rates and tax administrations' capacity are complements showing that their relationship depends on a country's level of development....

Institutions are important for proper economic performance, but are replaceable by trust or other social norms. We show that when proper institutions and trust are missing, integrity of the individuals can replace them. We construct a model of a transactions-based economy with contracts...

The importance of the prehistoric migration of anatomically modern humans from Africa for comparative economic development has been the focus of a vibrant research agenda in the past decade. This influential literature has attracted the attention of some scholars from other disciplines, and in...

We compare integration of economic, matching and networking markets. There can be losers from integration in all three cases, but their relative numbers depend on the type of market. There can be many losers from integration of pure exchange economies. There are relatively few losers from...

Social tipping can accelerate beneficial changes in behaviour in diverse domains from equality and social justice to climate change. Hypothetically, however, group identities might undermine tipping in ways policy makers do not anticipate. To examine this, we implemented an experiment around the...

Social tipping can accelerate beneficial changes in behaviour in diverse domains from equality and social justice to climate change. Hypothetically, however, group identities might undermine tipping in ways policy makers do not anticipate. To examine this, we implemented an experiment around the...